Solved Random restarts with AMD graphics card but not Nvidia graphics card

[cannotdisplay64]

Hi for the last 4 months ive been trying to fix a problem that ive been having with my computer.
about 4 months ago I did a major pc upgrade where i replaced my motherboard, processor, ram, heat sink, power supply and case, the only things I used from the original computer where 2 HDD's, 1 SDD and my AMD radeon HD 6950 2gb.

Now ive have the most strange issue where i can be watching a video off the HDD or surfing the web on youtube etc and not long after I start the activity my computer will turn off like if I had flicked the switch on the back of the power supply and then it boots back up again and will run fine until i start up an activity again and then it does exactly the same thing and reboots, there is no BSOD shown nor Dumps Created.

Ive tried many things to sort this out and have RMA'ed the power supply and the motherboard (the motherboard wasn't a direct replacement as they didn't sell my original board anymore which was a gigabyte ga-x79-ud5, now i have an asus p9x79 deluxe). I have tried only plugging in one HDD/SSD and then tried a spare HDD when that failed, i have tried one ram stick at a time and still nothing.

now heres where it gets strange whilst trying to rule out differnt hardware i switched my AMD card out for a very old 512mb, pcie 1.0 x16 nvidia graphics and since then my computer has been running marvelously i can have it playing videos for hours, days even(although i havent properly tested for days) and not a single problem at all.

The main difference between the cards is obiously one is nvidia and the other is AMD, the nvidia one doesn't require any form of external power from the power supply where as the AMD one requires 2 6pin connectors, and the AMD card is Massively more powerful when compared to the nvidia one (the AMD one can run Practically all new titles on max with ease whereas the nividia card struggles to play gta sa on medium). so i think ive narrowed it down to a driver error with amd and another driver with my new board, a damaged AMD card, a second dodgy power supply or something else that i haven't thought about or discovered yet.

Has anyone else had a similar problem or have any suggetions as im pretty much all out of ideas at this point and its starting to grind my gears that i cant use my expensive new computer as it should be. Any help is appreciated.

Joe

P.S. sorry about any spelling or punctuation mistakes made but Im very tired at the time of writing this and will be going to bed

 

[Erick Aguilar]

so i think ive narrowed it down to a driver error with amd and another driver with my new board, a damaged AMD card, a second dodgy power supply or something else that i haven't thought about or discovered yet.

Has anyone else had a similar problem or have any suggetions as im pretty much all out of ideas at this point and its starting to grind my gears that i cant use my expensive new computer as it should be. Any help is appreciated.

Joe

P.S. sorry about any spelling or punctuation mistakes made but Im very tired at the time of writing this and will be going to bed

The comparison you are making between GPU brands is pointless as a diagnostic. The MAIN difference I can see is that one card requires external power, and the other one does not. A proper diagnostic would be to test another GPU that requires external power.

I've heard that the specific PSU you bought will sometimes not power all the hardware it is supposed so.
People saying it could barely power a SSD, or even an extra fan.

My thoughts. Try using another PSU, try using a similar GPU. Use your old PSU and see if it still happens for starters.

 

[cannotdisplay64]

The comparison you are making between GPU brands is pointless as a diagnostic. The MAIN difference I can see is that one card requires external power, and the other one does not. A proper diagnostic would be to test another GPU that requires external power.

I've heard that the specific PSU you bought will sometimes not power all the hardware it is supposed so.
People saying it could barely power a SSD, or even an extra fan.

My thoughts. Try using another PSU, try using a similar GPU. Use your old PSU and see if it still happens for starters.

thanks Im trying a spare power supply my friend had and so far so good but ill continue testing, also I wrote comparison so people can get a good understanding of what the cards are like so they could spot possible problems that might happen with one but not the other